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Former teacher in Ruidoso charged with child sexual abuse
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A former teacher at a private Christian school in Ruidoso was arrested by New Mexico State Police on Thursday on numerous felony and misdemeanor charges related to sexual abuse of his students, some as young as 5 years old.
Devin Henderson, 23, a former teacher at Mountain View Christian Academy, is charged with 22 felony counts of sexual exploitation of children; seven counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor; seven counts of enticement of a child; three counts of distributing sexually oriented materials to minors; and a single count of indecent exposure.
Police said Henderson had worked at the school since 2023 and was placed on leave during the police investigation and later fired. He was arrested without incident in Ruidoso on Thursday, police said.
The investigation began after an initial report in December.
State Police learned of multiple incidents through forensic interviews in which Henderson was alleged to have inappropriately touched students between the ages of 5 and 10, some under their clothing.
In an affidavit, police said some of the children reported Henderson would show them seminude photographs on his phone of himself or of female figures. One boy told police the teacher had exposed himself to him, and one girl said Henderson had instructed her to touch him.
The affidavit states that a search of Henderson’s phone found photographs evidently taken of his genitalia, along with internet searches for artwork depicting children in sexually oriented images described as possibly computer-generated.
Police said an investigation into the case is ongoing.
